how do i fixa corupted hard drive

i have this old ide internal hard drive ad it has all of my file on it and i haven't used to for months (since i couldn't afford an external 1tb hard drive i used this) i would take it to the computer we have in the front of the house open it up and connect it with one of the ide ribbon cables, close it and turn the computer on and then i could easily access my hard drive without any lip but until now i have tried to access it but the computer says its currupted, i thought this was just windows being weird again so i tried it under a linux distro (several actually and it has worked under linux before) but still no dice it won't even let me mount it manually how do i recover these files without harming it i need these files all of my life is on there

 

Is it recognized in BIOS? If it is recognized get the HD manufacturer's (SeaTools for Seagate/Maxtor or WD Diagnostic for WD) diagnostic utility off their website and run the long/extended test--it will try to fix any errors. Since it is not your boot drive you should be fine as far as not risking any data that is still good. And since it is not your boot drive you can just get the Windows version of the utility rather than the DOS CD version.

 

its not going to hurt anything on it everything that i left on there will still be there

where can i find the diagnostic utility that you speak of i think i have a maxtor
(as soon as i find out i'll post it)

will chkdsk work or will it not i need something else for it

 

I was just reading the Seagate site and I am wrong about being able to use Seatools for Windows. Only the DOS version, which has to be written to CD as an image(ISO) file, can attempt repair of bad sectors on an internal drive.

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/seatools Run the Short test either Windows or DOS versions and see what it says about the HD. The Short test is data safe and will give you an idea of whether or not the long test is necessary. I've used the Long test with the Western Digital utility and have never noticed any data loss but I think it is possible. The data lost is only that which is so corrupted it can't be copied.

You could always try Windows' Chkdsk before downloading the diagnostic utility. Just use the first option of "automatically fix file system errors" not scan for bad sectors.

 

just connected it to the motherboard of my computer as a primary slave and windows xp chkdsk bootup utility came up (it has before so i just let it do what it wanted to do) then after a few minutes of watching it find and fix butt loads of errors that were apparently on there windows login screen finally came up, i logged in as admin and tried to access it again and IT WORKED!!! all i did was change the ide ribbon cable and let chkdsk do its job i was just worried thats how valuable the information on the drive is

 

Good job!

I discounted chkdisk when you said Linux couldn't mount the drive. I'm glad you suggested it and that it worked.

 

i'm still wondering how it ended up that way

 

If nothing major happened to it (ie, dropped or extreme hot/cold) then it is likely a sign that the drive is failing! (they all go to the big repair shop in the sky at some point)

Back up any data that is needed off it ASAP and either use it till it dies or just replace it.


[personally, i'd wipe it, format it, and use it till it drops, just dont use it for anything too important ]


Q

 

so are you saying that someday i won't be able to access it anymore
i am saving up for5 an ibook 1TB but i'm not getting anywhere now i feel bad again :cry

in case everyone is wondering where i have been keeping it for the last several years, its inside of a file cabinet (some sort of metal i don't know, its ferro magnetic so i'm guessing its either steel or iron most likely steel) is this a great place for it to be or should i start looking immediately

 

That filing cabinet sounds like a very safe place for a HDD

Unfortunately that means it is likely starting to fail, yes EVENTUALLY you will not be able to access it, but that goes for every HDD on the planet.

Regardless, you should have any precious data backed up at all times, a HDD can fail at any moment, one that has showed signs (like yours) is more than likely gonna do it again, ther are no guarantees either way though, it could go on for years without fault, or it could die tomorrow :\

Like i said, i'd still use it, but not for anything vital.


Q

 

well i doubt it, the only thing that i am mostly worried about is not having a computer that has ide cables anymore everything nowadays has sata how will i be able to retrieve all of my files by then, my idea is that when the compiuter we have that has ide crashes or something i can retrieve everything in puppy linux (its what i use to recover data on crashed computers anyway)

 

well i'm a little confused though

i have another ide hard drive that i am using as a slave that is older than the other one, it was in an HP Pavillion desktop from like 2004 and the other hard drive came from a dvr box 4 or 5 years ago and the hp pavillion hard drive is still going strong i think it was all just random i'm sure that it won't die yet, i don't think so though since these dvrs last almost forever (tivo i know people that still use those things where they might have ide hard drive the newer ones i guess have sata now for speed, if i'm right they might use those kinds of drives

 

HD life is random sometimes you get a good one sometimes you get a bad one. I wouldn't worry about it, a corrupted file system is not the same as a bad HD.

Get the SeaTools and run the short test. Takes about 30 seconds and will give you the SMART status. SMART is just a monitoring system that keeps track of errors and when the disk hits a certain threshold it is marked as bad. If your SMART status is bad then I would definitely find a way to temporarily move your files somewhere and do a full format on your HD before putting things back. Chances are your SMART status is fine and the corruption was just a fluke. Belarc Advisor can also give you SMART status.

And don't worry about IDE connectors disappearing there will always be cables for connecting IDE drives to USB slots that cost about $20 or less.

 

If the HDD was in regular use then i would agree with you 100% sach, but with it being in a seemingly stable and secure place and not being used much, my gut is saying bad HDD.




Q

 

what if i were to connect it to a computer and use it for a while, put it away and then a few weeks later use it again will that ensure that it will not fail (atleast until i get an external)

also what would you say if one of my other harddrives that i have been using like this one won't let a linux distro bootup from cd (it makes it stop somewhere during bootup, like when i try to bootup puppy linux it will stop everything at BOOTING THE KERNEL what does this mean is it going bad already, that gets me worried

ps since i can't connect it to the computer i have been connecting it too for the past couple years (it hasn't failed then) everyone doesn't want me to use that computer anymore because they think i might break since they don't understand what i am doing to it, so since they won't let me do that to the system anymore i am planning on installing windows 2000 on a system from 1998 (low ram but expanded it to 300MB or higher) so i can recover the stuff under a windows environment not a linux, it might also bring up chkdsk like windows xp did last time

 

just installed windows 2000 pro and still nothing

incase i was wrong i did a little test by getting a new hard drive that is exactly like it, connected it to the ide cable on the inside and started up the computer

still nothing i even checked the jumpers and they were set correctly i'm beginning to think that it might be the hardware, i'm not too sure about all of the pieces that it is composed of since it isn't all original, maybe there is something there that shouldn't be

i am extra sure that the drive i used as a test wasn't currupted i brought it up as a master after wards (changed the jumpers to do so) and VIOLA it came up as a drive ready to be mounted (in puppy linux like its suppossed to) i don't get it though maybe this assembly of hardware won't work with this stuff

 

and where would i be able to find such hardware, i checked bestbuy which is where i am planning to get the external (i have enough for it now0 but bestbuy doesn't have such a device i need to look somewhere ele, is thismethod easier than trying to get the motherboard to reconize the drive in bio (in my case since the hp pavillion 6330 mother won't do it but the dell in my living room will but no one wants me to connect my hard drive to it anymore) or maybe i might be able to convince them after i get my external

how long can an external hard drive last, forever or is it limited like an ide (i'm going for forever)

 

The cables are like this one. Chances are you will have to find it online. BestBuy/Staples/OfficeDepot etc. have really dropped a lot of internal components/cables from the list of items they carry. It is difficult to even find something like a CDROM in a brick and mortar store anymore.

I looked at that pavillion 6330 and it came with a 4gb HD. There was never a BIOS update offered on HP's site. I'm thinking that the BIOS can't recognize your HD because it is too big. Is it over 32GB?

 

i started using my 32GB hard drive and still nothing (the 4GB hard drive is a quantum bigfoot and i keep it around for kicks, to show my friends) i am thinking that its the bios (kaybe HP didn't intend for it to have a slave drive) it was hard opening the case in the frst place, i ended up prying the panels off with a hammer, the case is history so i'm using a different one and it works out fine, HP has to make things hard to upgrade especially from back then

when i got my 32GB hard drive and installed windows 2000 pro on it like i did the other one, i attached the slave drive and waited for the moment of truth, still nothing, it won't even show up in disk manager, it works fine on the other computer we have (made in like 2004 dells are awsome) so i'm guessing that its the fact that the bios wasn't intended on reconizing a slave drive, especially one that is way beyond its time so that answers my question, what do you think it could be? (the drive isn't corrupt i know that for a fact, i haven't had that problem with this drive before, not even recently it always comes up fine on the dell) so where do we go from here, i have another old computer just sitting in the doldrums in my room, hasn't been used in years, but when i started it up just recently and everything checks out okay (what were you saying about a hard drives life being limited) but i need to figure out how to open the thing

 

if my sources are correct, when you use the ide adapter you linked me to, ynu have to change the jumper on the hd from slave to master

by now you probiably already know that i under any circumstances don't want to touch the jumpers on the drive, the data on there is really valuable, will this change of jumpers hurt the drive even if the conversion device doesn't work, will the data on the drive still be readable

 

The change of jumpers can in no way harm any of your data as long as you are careful.

 

got it i'll start searching for a converter